Published in Windlesora 28 (2012)
©2012, WLHG
‘Children’s History of Windsor’ by Hester Davenport
ISBN 978-1-84993-132-8
Published by Hometown World
This is just the sort of jolly, fun-packed and entertaining book to get children interested in history. Even adults have been overheard saying how informative they have found it.
Hester Davenport’s stories take you right into the lives of people who lived in Windsor or shaped its destiny, from Roman times to today. It is peopled with fun cartoon characters and illustrated with cheerful drawings, photos and diagrams.
Brigitte Mitchell
‘The Royal Stag at Datchet and the Robert Barker Bridge House Trust’ by Janet Kennish
ISBN 978-0956866202
Privately printed by Robert Barker Trust Publishing 134 pages.
Datchet historian Janet Kennish has put together a well-researched and copiously illustrated book entitled The Royal Stag at Datchet and the Robert Barker Bridge House Trust. The book was commissioned by the Trustees of the Robert Barker Bridge House and celebrates the printing by Robert Barker (Printer to King James of England) of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611. Robert Barker is believed to have founded the trust in 1644. It is available from The Royal Stag in Datchet.
Elias Kupfermann
‘A Sound and Happy School’ by Margaret Gilson
ISBN 978-0-9536912-1-0
Privately published, but available through WLHG 262 pages.
Margaret Gilson, with her book A Sound and Happy School deserves the gratitude not only of St Peter’s at Old Windsor, but of the wider village community as its two hundred and sixty pages tell the story not only of a school nearly three hundred years old but also over the same period reflects the social history of Old Windsor itself. The author, as Chairman of the Governors for thirteen years and steeped in the village history, clearly knows what she is talking about. We are escorted on an absorbing chronological journey from the beginning in 1725 up to the present day, and progress through the daily lives of children and staff, their many illnesses, the defects of the buildings in which they worked, their failures and successes – one pupil of four-and -a-half learned, we are told, a poem of forty verses which ‘she repeated without pause or hesitation!’. That the school survived successive waves of official reorganisation in the last three decades was a miracle. The devotion of William Ellis, Headmaster for over thirty-two years, merits a volume of its own. An index would have been useful, but this is a minor pinprick. This is a delightful history, deserving of a readership far beyond the school; a sound and happy read indeed!
John E Handcock
Books Coming Soon
Charles Knight’s Express
Windsor newspaper’s view of history from 1812-1830
Windsor Guildhall A History of the Guildhall and guide to its artworks.
Windsor, Eton and the Neighbourhood
A Visitor’s Guide by Andrew Fielder.
Windsor Local History Group 